TALKBACK #20: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II

[XvGojira]

Kind of a long shot, but I had a boot sub of this on VHS which had a teaser for the upcoming "American Godzilla film". Does anyone have video of that teaser?

[DannyBeane]

Is this it?

[XvGojira]

YES! Thank you!

[lhb412]

^Whoa, reminds me of the early teaser trailers for The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Where the Wild Things Are that I've read about (haven't been able to find them online); both movies ended up spending years to actually get made after those teasers.

[DannyBeane]

[lhb412]

I'm sure it's already been said many times before, perhaps in this very thread and I've forgot, but there's a nice little synchronicity in this movie with the kaiju and mecha: while Godzilla's mechanical counterpart is, of course, Mechagodzilla, Garuda could be seen as Rodan's counterpart. Like Rodan and Godzilla, Garuda and Mechagodzilla are rivals, just in a different way. Both duos end up physically or spiritually fusing in the end to level up.

[MekaGojira3k]

Is Baby Godzilla's counterpart that dinky pteranodon glider?

[lhb412]

*shakes ball*

All signs point to... yes.

[jellydonut25]

Or maybe his counterpart is plant music. Because magical psychic strength.

[lhb412]

Listen, I said it was a bit of synchronicity, not a big bag full of synchronicity.

[Gman2887]

The adoration this movie gets 24 years later baffles me.

[lhb412]

^I guess people just like the mecha element? In retrospect, Mecha King Ghidorah was far cooler in the ten minutes it had. Emmy was a far more likable pilot, too.

I mean, it's not terrible, but if I list the Heisie films in order of preference this film is squarely in the middle.

[jellydonut25]

[DannyBeane]

This movie to me is a lot like Tokyo SOS in that it has decent spfx and doesn't technically do anything wrong. However it's just so safe plotwise that it makes it boring. It's a middle of the pack Heisei film for me. Much better than Mothra and Space Godzilla, however much worse then KG, Biollante G 85 and Destroyah

[Gentleman]

The MG theme is still one of my favorite pieces of G music, but age has dulled most of the rest of the movie for me. The MG suit, even then, seemed bafflingly portly with a pushed-in, puglike face. The Rodan puppet was about as animate as a two-dollar kite, Baby G is an eyebrow-raising smudge of dreck. The film has definitely lost some luster.

One big question I had, even upon its release, is "Why MechaGodzilla?" The original MG had a purpose - the aliens were camouflaging it as the true Godzilla. Kiryu had a logical reason for being, too, since it was constructed around the remains of the original Godzilla. But MGII had no real reason to be what it was, unless you assume that they had to build something that would house the plasma grenade.

[GFan]

[O.Supreme]

[Gentleman]

[jellydonut25]

^I'm with you guys and it's long been one of my biggest complaints. This Mechagodzilla lacks any raison d'etre OR personality. It might as well just be a big 'ole platform with beams on it.

[lhb412]

I do like that this Mechagodzilla has a whole crew of people inside it. Could be executed in a way to make it a lot more interesting, but I like the idea of it: a team of people directly fighting Godzilla.

Of course, Yuki in Spacegodzilla is more interesting than anyone piloting Mechagodzilla.

[Rodanex]

I have a question about the scene where Aoki gets re-assigned to parking lot duty. A man enters the office at the end of the scene, and Aoki exclaims "You!"

Does anybody have any idea who this guy is, and why Aoki is upset/excited? I've never understood this part.

[lhb412]

It's the 'Was the ultimate. Now it's just junk" guy from the beginning, right? It's a gag that the dude who handed him the orders promoting him in the beginning is now replacing him.

[eabaker]

That's the way I always read the scene. But the character is so minimally established at the beginning that the moment really doesn't land.

[Rodanex]

Ahhhh....okay. That makes more sense. I can't remember, does the guy wind up in the cockpit of Mechagodzilla in the final battle?

[jellydonut25]